Presently, students are in need of a carrying case for books and other school supplies designed to pass unincumbered through the narrow passage of school lockers. Conventional book bags once filled exceed the width provided by most school lockers. Consequently this provides for difficulty when trying to store such a bag in a locker for safe keeping. Typically a student must remove some of the bag's contents to allow such a bag to fit within a locker. Otherwise the book bag must be forced into the locker, thereby causing damage to the bag, it's contents, and possibly the locker as well. Similar damage is experienced upon retrieving said bag.
Furthermore, conventional book bags comprise a single storage compartment which contains the entire days supply of school material. This design adds to confusion when attempting to locate text and other material for a specified subject. Therefore, a book bag is also needed which provides a independent compartments for separating course material by subject matter.
U.S. Patents have issued for carrying cases used as garment bags and backpacks which include features to satisfy one or more of the above criteria.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,897 to Briggs et al. discloses a convertible garment bag constructed in the form of an elongated casing. The casing has a perimeter closure device to enable the carrying case to fold into multiple segments that interfasten to form a unitary compact for convenient transport by way of padded shoulder straps.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,061 to Tucker discloses a carrying case comprising a plurality of independent pieces capable of functioning independently of one another and each having fastening means for securing the separate pieces together as a unitary structure as desired while being stored or in use.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,258 to Jones discloses a convertible carrying case which comprises a back pack mode having a main storage element which has attached to either side a removable side storage element. Each side compartment includes a zipper which mates with a zipper on the side of the main storage element to allow for easy attachment and removal of the side elements.
The aforementioned U.S. patents are illustrative of the prior art carrying cases. Though prior art designs include features which satisfy one of more of the criteria of the present invention, no previous design fulfills all desired requirements. Accordingly, there continues to be a need for a carrying case for books and other school supplies which overcome the deficiencies of the prior art.